32 companies in illegal real estate investment schemes: Govt

New Delhi: At least 32 companies have been found by capital market regulator Sebi to be operating unauthorised money-pooling schemes in the garb of real-estate business.

These account for more than half of the total 59 companies that have faced Sebi action for running unregistered Collective Investment Schemes (CIS).

The capital market regulator had received 302 complaints against these 32 real estate companies and has passed orders against them for running CIS without registration.

"During the last three years and current year, Sebi has found that 32 companies were operating CIS under the garb of real estate without obtaining certificate of registration from Sebi as a collective Investment Management Company," Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

In nearly four years, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has passed orders against 59 companies for carrying out CIS activities without obtaining certificate of registration as a Collective Investment Management Company.

Based on the complaints and references received from investors and certain authorities, Sebi examines the activities of these companies with respect to applicability of norms.

To a separate query, Sinha said that Sebi has taken various measures to protect the interest of investors in the securities market.

These steps include reviewing the eligibility criteria for both profit making and non-profit making issuer and ensuring that only reasonable credible issuers with adequate disclosures in their offer documents are allowed to access the public issuances route.